New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday announced the dates of by-election to three Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha, which were vacated by Achyutananda Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik.
1. The by-election will be held on July 5 and counting of votes will take place on the same day.
2. While Samanta was elected to the recently held Lok Sabha elections from Kandhamal, both Deb and Patnaik resigned from Rajya Sabha after they were elected to the State Assembly.
3. Samanta’s term in the Upper House was set to end in April 2024 while Deb and Patnaik’s terms were up to July, 2022 and April, 2024 respectively.
4. With BJD comfortably placed to win all the three seats following its emphatic show in the Assembly elections, all eyes will be on party president Naveen Patnaik and the likely candidates who would be nominated for the three seats.
